By Mac Moore

KU Statehouse Wire Service

TOPEKA— Law enforcement officials cautioned legislators that a bill in the House seeking to protect the legal privacy of cell phone and cloud storage users might inadvertently hamper investigations of child abduction and human trafficking.

House Government, Technology and Security Committee held a hearing Monday for House Bill 2332, a bill prohibiting electronic communications and remote storage providers from disclosing customer data without consent of the customer and any disclosure of this prohibited data would not be inadmissible in court.

Kim Parker, legal counsel for the League of Kansas municipalities, said one section of the bill suggests law enforcement would still have access to electronic communications via search warrant but would limit other investigation tools.

“A number of concerns remain that could seriously affect legally valid criminal investigations,” Parker said.

Parker said the bill does not allow for exemptions for exigent and emergency circumstances. Without these exemptions, the bill could potentially block law enforcement from accessing cell phone information in child abduction cases and human trafficking cases.

“While the cops are busy tapping out a warrant application, the kid has left the state with the bad guy,” she said.

Parker also said most human trafficking is done “in the dark” through use of cell phones. Traffickers often abandon phones to avoid detection. Parker said these devices would normally be available as an exception to the search warrant requirement but not under this law.

“Kansas has long used investigative tools not addressed in this bill,” she said.

Ed Klumpp, Kansas Sheriff’s Association legislative liaison, said parts of the bill had conflicting language. A section which provides for disclosure of electronic communication or remote storage through legal means only identifies use “in a civil action”. Klumpp said this could exclude criminal cases.

“We understand the intent of the bill and are not opposed to what you are trying to do with data security and protection of people’s rights,” he said. “We certainly want to have something to address unlawful breaches and we know that is the intent of the bill. Our concerns are how those could apply adversely to criminal cases.”

Amanda Stanley, legal counsel for The League of Municipalities, endorsed the bill. Stanley said third party servers such as cloud storage are increasing in importance as most organizations move toward a paperless system. Stanley said the League supports making it clear the act of storing a privileged document in cloud storage does not waive attorney-client privilege.

Rep. Steven Becker (R-Buhler) said the bill seemed to favor attorney-client privilege more than other privileges such as doctor-patient.

“It’s all privilege,” Becker said. “So we’re taking that privilege from the statutes and giving it more protections than other privileges?”

Chairman Peter DeGraaf (R-Mulvane) said the committee would have to look at possible changes to resolve objections to the language of the bill. The committee took no action on the bill.

Mac Moore is a University of Kansas senior journalism major from Lawrence.